Graphic Illustration. Clifford D. May is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on national security. Contact him at cliff@defenddemocracy.org.

SAN ANGELO, Texas - In his 6,000-word speech on national security at the National Defense University last week, President Barack Obama devoted only one paragraph to the ideology of those who proclaim themselves America’s enemies. But those 92 words are worth a closer look.

“Most, though not all, of the terrorism we face is fueled by a common ideology,” the president began. Quite right: Al-Qaida, the Taliban, Iran’s rulers, Hezbollah, Hamas and many others who utilize terrorism do indeed see the world through similar lenses.

The president did not name their ideology but most of us have, over time, come to employ such terms as “jihadism,” “Islamism,” “political Islam” and “radical Islam.”

The president described this ideology as “a belief by some extremists that Islam is in conflict with the United States and the West.” This, too, is accurate. If you read the writings of Osama bin Laden, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and such Muslim Brotherhood intellectuals as Sayyid Qutb and Hassan al-Banna, there can be no doubt that, by their lights, such a conflict is inevitable — and well underway.

The extremists also believe, Obama continued, “that violence against Western targets, including civilians, is justified in pursuit of a larger cause.” He refrained from defining that cause, though earlier in the speech he did mention that “deranged or alienated individuals” have been “inspired by larger notions of violent jihad.”

Exactly: They believe that Muslims have been divinely commanded to wage jihad against those who refuse to accept Allah as the supreme authority of the universe; Mohammad as Allah’s messenger; the Quran as the revealed and unchanging word of Allah; and sharia as the laws that all humankind must obey.

They believe, too, that the Dar al-Islam, the lands where Muslims rule, and the Dar al-Harb, the lands where infidels rule, cannot peacefully coexist.

Many Westerners find it hard to conceive that anyone could actually hold such beliefs. But for millennia there have been conflicts in which one group has imposed upon another its language, culture, religion and DNA. The use of religion or ideology to justify such aggression and domination is hardly new.

Next, the president said: “Of course, this ideology is based on a lie, for the United States is not at war with Islam.” That is something of a non sequitur: As noted above, a central tenet of the ideology he’s discussing holds that Islam is at war with the United States and other nations that persist in rejecting Islam’s message — and that the conflict must continue until the infidels submit.

Further: “And this ideology is rejected by the vast majority of Muslims. ...” Indeed, most Muslims have no wish to wage war against non-Muslims, no desire to strap their children into bomb vests, or even to give money to the “charities” that support such missions.

But if only 5 or 10 percent of the world’s more than 1 billion Muslims do see such efforts as virtuous, we’re still looking at a substantial jihadist movement.

The president noted that Muslims “are the most frequent victims of terrorist attacks.” Yes, and what’s more, the extremists reserve their most vehement hatred for fellow Muslims who reject their ideology, who — as they see it — have abandoned the true faith in favor of a watered-down interpretation of Islam.

They call such Muslims apostates, and the punishment for apostasy is death. This is among the reasons so few Muslim dare speak out against the fundamentalists.

Obama concluded his single-paragraph disquisition with this: “Nevertheless, this ideology persists.” That raises the key strategic question: What is to be done? The president answered: “This war, like all wars, must end. That’s what history advises. That’s what our democracy demands.”

Wars do end — but rarely because one side declares them over unless, of course, that side is willing to accept defeat. Imagine President Franklin D. Roosevelt, circa 1943, deciding it was time to end the “wars” in Europe, Asia and North Africa even as German and Japanese troops continued to spread fascism. Imagine President John F. Kennedy saying it was time to wind down the Cold War even as the Soviets were expanding the frontiers of communism.

The ideology that confronts us today is no less totalitarian, supremacist and bellicose.

Surely, what history advises is that it is does no good to attempt to appease those who hate us. Surely, what democracy demands is that we stand up to those who threaten our freedom — even if that means paying the price and bearing the burden of a long war.